Most said that the "free passes" and special treatment given in school and beyond are not worth the price of having above-average IQ. In fact, any complacency they enjoyed during their early years ended up hurting them later in life.

"I often feel like a huge failure and I can't look at my transcript without crying," writes one user. "I still consider myself extremely intelligent and capable but I can't push myself to do the work required to make straight As. Overall it's forced me to set an unreasonably high standard for myself."

We've pulled together some of the most interesting comments from the thread about why it's horrible to grow up gifted.

From an early age, you believe it's you vs. the world.

"You're suddenly looking around at the world and realizing that you're supposed to have some crazy work ethic at everything because YOU'RE gifted and THEY aren't. More is expected of YOU than THEM because of the big giant brain that YOU were given that THEY weren't. See a pattern there? There's this exclusivity complex there where it's an 'Us vs. Them' mentality."

You develop a superiority complex.

"When you've been told all your life that you're the smartest person in the room, you don't take orders from others very well, especially those who you don't find very bright (which, sadly, is most people)."

Inflated expectations also lead to a deep feeling of inadequacy.

"Being labeled as gifted caused my parents to have inflated expectations of me which I will never meet. I am quite happy with an undergraduate degree and career in business. My parents think I should be curing cancer while working on my 4th PhD."

You put too much pressure on yourself.

"School has always been the biggest trigger for my anxiety because I'm afraid of not doing well enough, and I never cut myself any slack. I also have other mental illness issues, and my preoccupation with marks expanded into believing my parents won't love me if I don't get the grades I think I should. The pressure comes entirely from within. They have always said as long as I try they will be proud, but I stress myself out anyway."

Your parents constantly raise the bar.

"My brother and sister were praised for mediocrity, getting extra allowance or other such gifts when they got Bs and Cs. If I brought back anything but top grades I didn't get such treatment. I always thought it was stupid and unfair."

In fact, everyone expects you to be perfect.

"I've had a genius-level IQ my whole life, and it's caused my parents (mother in particular) to believe that I should be able to go whole semesters without ever getting a single exam question wrong. Every time I try to explain that that isn't how intelligence works, I get told 'that's just an excuse, you're smart.' Genius does not equal perfection."

You're always trying to get everyone's approval.

"I think the worst is the constant need for other people's approval, and basing my entire self-worth on what others think. It's led to tons of anxiety, because I can never fail at anything, or let other people down. It's led to a bunch of self-destructive behaviors, where I'll do things that I hate or that harm myself, just to please other people and gain their approval."

You become terrified of failure.

"The ease at which I excelled when I was younger made it hard when I DID struggle, as I was terrified of disappointing everyone. I still suffer from severe anxiety because, frankly, I never learned to fail. And I think that's an important lesson for people to learn."

Other people hate you for being smart.

"I was always an overachiever, despite being told I was extra smarties, until I got to high school and I suddenly started caring what everyone else thought. In elementary school I got perfect grades. In high school, I stopped trying so damn hard, because everyone hated the kid with the perfect grades. I remember taking a bio test once, I think that was the swing point, where the closest grade to mine was a 78%, and I got a 96%, and everyone hated me."

And jealousy leads to bullying.

"Precocious + bullied, that was probably the formula that made people think I needed the label, really. Adults, rather than dealing with said bullies, just reassured me I was special and that they'd be 'bagging your groceries' etc. Ironically I only stopped waiting tables and working in supermarkets about two years ago."

It's hard to stay positive.

"I found the hardest part of the expectations was staying positive. Top of the line grades were expected. If you got the best grades, you were doing what you were supposed to do. If you got less than stellar grades, you obviously just weren't applying yourself. It's hard to be positive when the only reactions are neutral and negative."

You constantly feel like you are alone.

"The idea that I was smarter than everybody meant that I only trusted myself, listened to no one and would only except advice when it made sense to me. I mostly used my gifted brain to do as little work as possible and I developed bad habits. I believed that I did not need to do well in school ... because I could make up for it later."

You don't develop a work ethic.

"It would of been nice if they had separated us somehow so school was actually challenging, but once everyone in my life was telling me that I was brilliant rather than just my parents, I never did any work or paid attention in classes. ... If I had some work ethic in school I think my life would have turned out loads differently. But as it was, because they knew I was so bright, I never had to do anything."

And you realize you can't always fake your work ethic.

"I excelled in grade school without having to put in any effort. I would show up to finals, asking which exam we were taking that day, and get top scores. I never learned how to do homework or maintain any sort of work ethic, but I became very skilled at coasting through courses and bullshitting on essay questions (writing what I speculated the teacher wanted to hear, and not something with actual substance). Once I hit university I couldn't get away with not doing any work anymore, so I hit a wall that I'm still trying to overcome."

You develop a false sense of security.

"I was always put in 'gifted' programs up until grade six. While I learned a lot in those sessions that I would not have had the privilege to otherwise learn, I feel now it lulled me into a false sense of security of my perceived capabilities, and began to coast in school. It eventually caught up to me, and I still kick myself over letting myself get complacent."

Weakness become uncomfortably apparent.

Ultimately, you set unreasonably high standards for yourself.

"I often feel like a huge failure and I can't look at my transcript without crying. I still consider myself extremely intelligent and capable but I can't push myself to do the work required to make straight A's. Overall it's forced me to set an unreasonably high standard for myself. I have considered myself in a three-year slump (I'm a junior in high school now), but I'm starting to accept that I'm just a B student."

BONUS: And in the end, you aren't necessarily better than everyone else.

"It harmed me in the sense that it made me think I was special when I wasn't. I was considered 'gifted' in my small high school in my small hometown, but out in the rest of the world, I'm average at best."